“I like to let things unfold in front of me… to take pictures of everything that was going on. It was my way of passing time. I just enjoyed looking through that magic little window and capturing these scenes.” - Henry Diltz

More than just a record of rock’s greatest moment’s and performers, Henry Diltz’s images of daily life at the heart of 1960’s counter culture provide a unique and compelling record of a time of momentous change in our society. One of the foremost rock music photographers; his images give a behind the scenes look at festivals, concerts, Be-ins and recording sessions.

The Doors, Monkees, Eagles, America, Jackson Browne, James Taylor, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Mamas and Papas, Lovin Spoonful, Joni Mitchell, Steppenwolf, Neil Young and Crosby, Stills & Nash. Henry Diltz, captured them all. He has more than 200 album sleeves to his credit, including such famed album covers as The Doors' Morrison Hotel, James Taylor's Sweet Baby James, and Crosby, Stills & Nash's debut. He was the official photographer at the Woodstock and Monterey Music Festivals. This exhibition features more than 500 images in Diltz’s first career retrospective and museum exhibition.

“But wherever they came from, and wherever they were headed, they found, in each other, a new family—even a new definition of family—with music and lifestyle, a shared sensibility about possibilities beyond the straight and narrow—the common grounds. The exciting thing about that life and those times was that they were shaping it themselves. The explorers were writing the rules, living the life, responding to what went on around them—and then providing the soundtrack for it all.”- Ben Fong Torres

“In those days, it was such a big family we would get in the car and say "Where are we going," and they'd say "Crosby's house," and then Crosby would say, "Let's go over to Cass's house." You'd just spend the day kind of bopping around from place to place, and I'd always have my camera with me, and it was my compulsion, to take pictures of everything that was going on, all my friends.”

“There really was a wonderful feeling of the sun coming out and that the world is really going to change.”-Henry Diltz

GETTING STARTED

“We were driving all over and we all bought these little second hand cameras. We just started snapping pictures… When we got back to LA, we got all of our friends together and had a slide show. Well there was just something about seeing these moments. It was amazing to see them all blown up huge on the wall… Because it was the fact that the pictures were projected on the wall huge and that all your friends are gathered around sitting in the dark reliving these moments. It was magic to me. It absolutely blew my mind. And everybody seemed to really like the pictures. And I thought I’ve got to keep doing this so we can have more slide shows and then I would photograph my friends until-I wouldn’t say they were sick of it because after a while they wouldn’t even notice me.” - Henry Diltz

I was always taking pictures of fellow musicians like David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Mama Cass, and Neil Young. These were all people I had known really well from playing in clubs - We all hung out at the Troubadour, which was a folk club in LA. Being a photographer means you can sneak under the circus tent, hang out back stage, and crouch in the corner. When magazines started contacting me to use some of the pictures I suddenly realized that I could make money doing this.” -Henry Diltz

THE SCENE IN CALIFORNIA“I remember one day at a Love-in I saw Gary Burden walking along, and he had two friends with him, two young guys who turned out to be Russ Kunkel, the drummer, and Brian Garafolo, a bass player who played with people like Glenn Frey and Joe Walsh. They all had peace stamps on their foreheads, those "ban the bomb" stamps, an ink stamp on their forehead, and I took a picture of the three of them… so we hung out that day and got to talking and Gary said he's doing a lot of graphic work, and he needed photos, so he asked me if I wanted to help. I don't know if that was 1966 or 1967, but in the late sixties…I ended up hanging out with Gary constantly, almost every day as I remember.
Another day, Gary Burden was visiting with Cass Elliot and Cass talked him into doing her album cover - under protest. He said, "I'm an architect, I don't do album covers," and she said, "Well, it's the same thing, you know. You just have a 12" square to work with." So he did, and Joni Mitchell and Cass were friends, so that was another connection, so we were all, really, an interconnected family of people during the time Joni was writing "Ladies of the Canyon," and I was living in Laurel Canyon.

I would go down to Hollywood, be up in Laurel Canyon and drive down the hill to Gary's house. In those days, it was such a big family we would get in the car and say "Where are we going," and they'd say "Crosby's house," and then Crosby would say, "Let's go over to Cass's house." You'd just spend the day kind of bopping around from place to place, and I'd always have my camera with me, and it was my compulsion, to take pictures of everything that was going on, all my friends. I didn't think of it as photography, it was more like biting my nails. It was second nature, it was something I was hung up on doing, and it was my way of passing time.

On a Saturday afternoon you'd walk down the hill a little ways, and there would be the band BuffaloSpringfield hanging out at somebody's house playing. They were playing music and I remember they had a little dog named Clancy and first thing you know they had a song, "Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing." And it was all just one big family.”-Henry Diltz

ABOUT HENRY DILTZ

Henry Diltz was born in Kansas City, Missouri. During the late fifties, Henry divided his time between college in Munich, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and the University of Hawaii, where he studied psychology. In the early 60's Henry joined Chip Douglas and Stan White to form the Lexington Three and in 1962, following the break-up of the Whiskeyhill Singers, they were joined by Cyrus Faryar. The quartet became known as the Lexington Four and later as the Modern Folk Quartet. Henry played clarinet and banjo. The Modern Folk Quartet was originally a wholesome commercial folk group who moved into folk-rock along with friends from the folk scene like the Lovin' Spoonful and the Mamas and the Papas.

The MFQ recorded two albums with Warner Bros Records and did numerous college concert tours and club engagements around the country, including Manhattan's "Village Gate," the "Troubador," and “Whisky-A-Go-Go” in Hollywood. While still a member of the Modern Folk Quartet, Henry started making images that attracted the eye of many fellow musicians who needed publicity pictures. In the early days of his photography career, Henry also continued to play as a session musician (usually on banjo), contributing to albums by Tim Buckley, the Monkees, John Stewart, Stephen Stills and others.

Exhibitions and programs at the Southeast Museum of Photography are supported in part by Daytona State College, Volusia ECHO and the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Council on the Arts.